On Monday, May 13th, Coach Flanagan and the Delbarton Green Wave completed in the Tournament of Champions in hopes of clinching the overall NJ team title. In the ToC hosted at Raritan Valley Country Club, a club that is difficult and requires a lot of accuracy and consistency to perform well, Matthew Lu, JM-Dzazdio, Jake Kurztman, and William Kramer were able to outperform all of the other teams and won by 13 strokes.
Delbarton was #1 overall in the tournament. With four scores under 80, it is a very impressive show of skill from all the Green Wave’s golfers, as they have all shown amazing consistency for all of the large (18-hole) tournaments so far. JM-Dzazdio, the captain, and Matthew Lu came in with a 74(+2). Jake Kurtzman scored a 78(+6), and William Kramer scored a team-low 73(+1). While it may have been 14 years since Delbarton’s last win at the ToC, the Delbarton golf team is confident that they will be able to have a substantial win again next year, as their roster contains many talented players who have huge potential.
For the specifics on how they managed to play this well, JM-Dzazdio managed a whopping 4 birdies throughout his round, shooting 37(+1) on both the back and front nine. Jake Kurztman, who usually has the lowest score on the team, had 2 birdies with a handful of bogeys and two doubles, leading to his highest score of the year. Matthew Lu, who came in with a 74(+2), had 3 birdies and a collection of bogeys that led to 37s(+1) on both the front and back. William Kramer, the other low shooter on the team, came in with an impressive 73(+1). Kramer had the most birdies on the team, with 5, including the last hole, earning 9th place out of all the players at the tournament.
While the ToC was impressive, so was the state sectional at Francis Bryne leading up to it, in a clash between Delbarton and Newark Academy. While Delbarton did end up coming out on top, it was a very close match. Delbarton won on a tiebreaker of the 5th score, with Grady pulling in with a clutch 75(+5) compared to Newark’s fifth score of 82. Newark Academy’s Arjun Caprihan shot an impressive 66 (-4), and Aryik shot a 71 (+1). However, Delbarton came in strong with a 70(E) from JM-Dzazdio, 74(+4) from Jake Kurztman, 71(+1) from Matthew Lu, 71(+1) from William Kramer, and 75(+5) from Grady Gore. An impressive showing from JM-Dzazdio again as he had a nice 3 birdies, going 2 under par on the back nine, recovering from his 3 bogeys on the front, giving him that nice even par score. Jake Kurtzman came through with a solid 74(+4) that day, unfortunately not getting any birdies in the process.
Matthew Lu initially struggled but managed to pull it back to 71(+1) with a surprising 3 birdies in the last 6 holes and 4 birdies in total. William Kramer stayed consistent, with 2 birdies and 3 bogeys, giving him a very good score of 71(+1). Grady, while having a strong start, struggled in the end, getting 3 bogeys in the last 4 holes, leading to his finish of 75(+5).
With 4 out of Delbarton’s 5 top players being 3 juniors and a senior, Delbarton hopes to maintain their performance and seems to be in line to contend again next year.